Earth Babies Blog

What is the difference between “global warming” and “climate change?”
(Global Warming Kid’s Pages)
“Global warming” refers to the increase of the Earth’s average surface temperature, due to a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. “Climate change” is a broader term that refers to long-term changes in climate, including average temperature and precipitation

The idea of climate change is not a foreign concept anymore – all of us have heard of it – there are ongoing arguments and studies as to whether global warming is due to our actions or the natural life cycle of the earth.
Whether we roll our eyes at the fuss or buy into the concern whole hog it is a concept our children will need to learn about.
Irrespective of what our take on it is, the approaches for helping are simple and logical from the stand point of teaching our children about our influence on our earth, the creatures on it and the resources we need for our daily living – it is our responsibility as parents to raise our children to be considerate, respectful and love this planet that allows us life.

The other day we took the kids to watch Earth (unfortunately I did not get to watch it all as it is a documentary so lost Kara’s attention as soon as the opening scenes of the polar bear babies moved on) but Rafe watched it all with his dad and enjoyed it.
Basically it is a documentary which demonstrates the effects of climate change by following three animal families and their amazing journeys across the planet. The imagery is beautiful, they share interesting facts about the animals and show effectively how climate change is affecting the animals, their source of food and in essence their very existence.
(2 other stunning kids movies, which though they don’t focus on climate change, take on the the subject of how our actions as humans are affecting the earth and animals are Happy feet and Wall-E)

Climate change can be a big concept to try and explain to children especially if like me you only grasp the basics, so I found some lovely sites specifically focused on children that can help you communicate it to them on their level.
There are many but I will only list a few (google is your friend Ü)

Cool kids for a Cool Climate – Projects, News, Stories

Twelve Really Important Things you can do to help stop global warming – nice explanations

Global Warming for kids which links to Hippo Works – Lovely little cartoon clips which address climate change and other environmental issues in short simple format easy for children (& those like me needing climate change for dummies) to understand.

For today Climate Change is the focus for Blog Action Day 2009 – more than 7000 bloggers have registered to participate. Go have a look and see what others have to say on this subject.

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